theartsdesk com, first with arts reviews, news and interviews
Bill Knight
Thursday, 11 August 2022
Les Rencontres d’Arles 2022 is upon us and the town has given itself over to photography once again. As you walk through the sunbaked streets you can find more than 40 exhibitions...
David Kettle
Thursday, 11 August 2022
Every Word was Once an Animal, Zoo Southside ★★★★Ghent-based theatre company Ontroerend Goed have been prodding and provoking Fringe audiences for years, sometimes forcefully – as...
Christopher Lambton
Thursday, 11 August 2022
The last-minute indisposition of your leading lady is enough to give festival directors palpitations, let alone their audiences, now forewarned by the dreaded email thudding into...
Veronica Lee
Thursday, 11 August 2022
Kiri Pritchard-McLean, Monkey Barrel ★★★★Wearing a heavily sequinned leotard - she thought this was how we’d all dress after “living in trackies during lockdown” - Kiri...
Joe Muggs
Thursday, 11 August 2022
The journey of Ross “Hudson Mohawke” Birchard has been truly one of the most extraordinary in modern music. From teenage scratch DJ champion and happy hardcore raver in some of...
Boyd Tonkin
Wednesday, 10 August 2022
The Ulster Orchestra’s Prom finished early to accommodate a late-night concert by the esteemed Tredegar Band – but by then, we’d already enjoyed one spectacular brass showcase....
Aleks Sierz
Wednesday, 10 August 2022
Has the pandemic made us more angry? Although Francesca Martinez’s debut play, which is at the National Theatre, was...
Veronica Lee
Wednesday, 10 August 2022
Colin Hoult: The Death of Anna Mann, Pleasance Courtyard ★★★★★ Anna Mann – actress, singer, welder (you’ve got to...
Mark Hudson
Wednesday, 10 August 2022
In later life Gustav Metzger appeared a marginal, eccentric figure. The diminutive, white-bearded artist, was often to be...
Barney Harsent
Wednesday, 10 August 2022
The last time Danger Mouse (Brian Burton to his mum) dropped a hip hop album, it was 2005’s The Mouse & The Mask, a...
David Kettle
Tuesday, 09 August 2022
The Last Return, Traverse Theatre ★★★★★ Put a leafless tree prominently on stage – especially in an Irish play from an Irish...
Gavin Dixon
Tuesday, 09 August 2022
It is mid-way through the new Ring cycle, and we are taking lunch outside the old town hall on the high street in Bayreuth....
Veronica Lee
Tuesday, 09 August 2022
Kathy and Stella Solve a Murder!, Summerhall ★★★★★ What a pleasure to be in the audience for this terrific musical...
Boyd Tonkin
Monday, 08 August 2022
Danny Elfman – the punk rocker-turned-film composer behind Batman, Spider-Man, Edward Scissorhands and The Simpsons –...
David Kettle
Monday, 08 August 2022
In retrospect, all the clues were there. A star actor embarking on a new performance genre; a fresh reappraisal of one of...
Richard Bratby
Monday, 08 August 2022
Joseph Heller grew tired of being told that he’d never written anything as good as Catch 22. ‘Who has?’, he'd retort....
David Kettle
Monday, 08 August 2022
Boy, Summerhall ★★★★ Nature or nurture? It’s the perennial question behind so much in human development – and the central...
Mark Kidel
Monday, 08 August 2022
Boris are an eclectic Japanese band, with over 20 albums to their name. Following their creative instincts and often...
Veronica Lee
Sunday, 07 August 2022
Les Dawson: Flying High, Assembly George Square ★★★ Any opportunity to watch impressionist Jon Culshaw at work is...
tv
Murder in Provence, ITV review - a little light sleuthing amid fabulous French scenery
Roger Allam and Nancy Carroll make an urbane crime-solving duo
The Newsreader, BBC Two review - a drama series of welcome substance from Australia
It's 1986, and a Melbourne TV news team are battling rival stations and each other
The Control Room, BBC One review - twisty thriller set in an ultra-noir Glasgow
A mysterious woman caller turns an ambulance dispatcher's life inside out
film
Nightclubbing: The Birth of Punk Rock in NYC review - cheap thrills
Chasteningly mundane history of punk venue Max's, plus Sid Vicious' last stand
Give Them Wings review - down but not out in Darlington
Daniel Watson and Toyah Willcox shine as a disabled man and his doughty mam
Our Eternal Summer review - tragedy taps authentic teenage emotions in Marseille
Innocence ends abruptly for a group of school leavers in Emilie Aussel's promising directorial debut
new music
Album: Danger Mouse & Black Thought - Cheat Codes
A thrilling reminder of what hip-hop can be when you go back to your roots with absolute focus
classical
Prom 31, Alder, Ulster Orchestra, Rustioni review - a summer night's dream
Romantic favourites served with flair and care
Prom 27, Dinnerstein, National Youth Orchestra, Gourlay review - colour symphonies
A luscious musical tour with the cream of young players
First Person: Mark Bromley of the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain celebrates a milestone in its history
This splendid institution's CEO explains its egalitarian role in the musical ecosystem
opera
Rusalka, Edinburgh International Festival 2022 review - sumptuous rendition of a watery fable
Total triumph for replacement water-nymph Elin Pritchard
theartsdesk at the Bayreuth Festival Ring 2022 - a jumbled mess of ideas, some of them compelling
A Tarantino-style Ring cycle offers many inspired scenes, but little coherence or depth
Utopia, Limited, National Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company review - bounded rapture
Savoy turkey almost flies, in a spirited new staging
theatre
Edinburgh Fringe 2022 reviews: Every Word was Once an Animal / Tim Crouch: Truth’s a Dog Must to Kennel
Theatre about theatre? There's plenty of it at the Fringe: here are two fine examples
All of Us, National Theatre review - revelatory, but problematic
Francesca Martinez’s debut play about disability politics entertains - and frustrates
Edinburgh Fringe 2022 reviews: The Last Return / Psychodrama / Exodus
Three shows at the Traverse take in gritty realism and no-holds-barred farce
dance
theartsdesk at the Ravenna Festival 2022 - body and soul in perfect balance
Completion of the city’s big Dante project with 'Paradiso' is only one of three wonders
The Rite of Spring, Pina Bausch/École des Sables, Sadler's Wells review - explosive and disturbing
At last, the pan-African production of Bausch's landmark choreography arrives on the London stage
The Car Man, Royal Albert Hall review - grand scale drama and decadence
An explosive restaging of the original dance drama
comedy
Edinburgh Fringe 2022 reviews: Kiri Pritchard-McLean / Lou Sanders / Snort
Exploring Welsh identity; rollerskating diaries; New Zealand improv
Edinburgh Fringe 2022 reviews: Colin Hoult / Nick Helm / Susie McCabe
A sad adieu, a pandemic experience and the awfulness of hen dos
Edinburgh Fringe 2022 reviews: Tiff Stevenson / Seann Walsh / Rosie Holt
The world's biggest and best arts festival begins
Books
Amalie Smith: Thread Ripper review - the tangled web we weave
AI meets Penelope meets Ada Lovelace in this meditation on text, tissue and textile
Phoebe Power: Book of Days review - the clack of walking poles, the clink of scallop shell
Powerful poems of pilgrimage, loss and belonging along the Camino de Santiago
Jessie Burton: The House of Fortune review - a muted, sensitive sequel
The ghosts gather as the miniaturist returns in Burton’s latest instalment
visual arts
Gustav Metzger: Earth Minus Environment, Kestle Barton review - an illuminating glimpse of a visionary activist-artist
Ecological dirty-realism plus mass-media overload in an idyllic Cornish setting
Milton Avery: American Colourist, Royal Academy review - from backward-looking impressionist to forward looking-colourist
A slow reveal of the painter dubbed the American Matisse
Eric Ravilious: Drawn to War review - a lovingly crafted documentary portrait
In love and war: one of England's great watercolourists reappraised
latest comments
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